Howlin’ Wolf—“Spoonful” (Chess 1960, 2:45)
The day before I flew home to Montana from Providence (23 May 1982) I found a very useful, cartoon-jacketed, budget-line blues sampler—America’s Musical Roots—that contained many of the most famous singles ever to appear on Chess Records, this one foremost among them.
Nothing about the chundering roar of Cream’s infamous 15-minute live cover version (from 1968’s Wheels of Fire) had prepared me for the dazzling economy of this implacable 3-minute original. The Wolf reaches a peak of gruff soulfulness herein, but the chief attraction for a 19-year-old me, amazingly enough, was one Hubert Sumlin, whose elegantly jagged guitar accompaniment still strikes me as the most tersely perfect single performance I’ve ever heard on my favorite instrument!
In my dreams I can effortlessly reel off riveting 2-, 3- and 4-note runs like these, along with the occasional trademark solo, thereby piercing the eardrums and upsetting the all-too-mellow bodily rhythms of the benighted….as Mr. Sumlin apparently still does, FIFTY years later.
– Tom Kipp
This gem of musical sophistry is excerpted from Tom Kipp Weighs in re: Ten Songs …and cheats a little, as usual!, please check it out for the full story.
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